-DATE-
19610818
-YEAR-
1961
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
PLENARY SESSION OF LETERACY CAMPAIGN WORKERS
-PLACE-
CUBA
-SOURCE-
REVOLUCION
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19610818
-TEXT-
CASTRO ADDRESS AT PLENARY SESSION OF
LITERACY CAMPAIGN WORKERS
Source: Revolucion, Havana, 18 August 1961
The following is the complete text, as recorded by the Typewritten
Reports Department of the Revolutionary Government, of the speech delivered
by the Prime Minister, Doctor Fidel Castro, at the plenary session of
literacy campaign workers held on Wednesday at the Chaplin Theater:
Comrades of the trade union sections and trade union leaders of
the province of Havana:
When the campaign to eliminate illiteracy in the course of one
year was launched in 1961, and it was agreed to call this "Education Year,"
we knew that we had undertaken a difficult enterprise.
Like all of the promises of the revolution, this one had to be
fulfilled, but in order to carry out this task the effort which would be
required was gigantic. Possibly there had never been an experience of this
type, that is to say, such a campaign of this scope. There was no precedent
for this vast task. We had to organize the campaign and overcome all the
obstacles encountered along the way.
We were confident that the people of Cuba, if they set themselves
this goal, would achieve it. We believed first of all that it was necessary
to mobilize the teachers and the professors, that it was necessary to
mobilize the people, the volunteer literacy workers, those who wanted to
enroll in order to teach. Naturally, we realized that we could not depend
on the teachers alone, because their number was too small. Possibly there
would not be enough volunteers for teaching, but even then we are thinking
that if the teachers and the voluntary literacy workers did not suffice, we
could mobilize the students. And then we had the idea, or developed the
plan, of inviting the young people to join in this campaign. We set
ourselves the goal of organizing the Conrado Benitez Brigades, to total a
hundred thousand literacy campaign brigade members. This was another figure
which seemed very ambitious, just like the goal of eliminating illiteracy
in a year.
And we feared that perhaps it would still not be enough to
mobilize a hundred thousand brigade members, in addition to the literacy
teachers. On some occasions, when we visited places in the interior of the
country, we realized that in the vast mountain areas, in the rural sector
in general, where the homes of almost a half of the population of Cuba were
located, and where many families lived completely isolated, even the tens
of thousands of literacy teachers and brigade members might not be enough
to cover all the territory. And it was disheartening to see how in the
vastness of the mountains, the tens of thousands of teachers seemed to melt
away, without being able possibly to reach a hundred percent of the homes.
We saw that in the rural sector, the task would be more difficult,
because of the fact, on the one hand, that the majority of the illiterates
were in this sector, and on the other, communications in the rural sector
are very difficult. So it was necessary to find a kind of literacy teacher
who would be willing to go and live there, in the homes of the peasants.
But we still had one resource, and from the very first we knew
that if the teachers, the voluntary literacy campaign workers and the
brigade members proved too few, it was still possible to mobilize the
workers' class.
We believe that if it was possible to mobilize hundreds of
thousands of workers when it was a question of defending the sovereignty of
the country against the threats of aggression, or against the attacks of
the imperialists, that if when it came to fighting in the Zapata Swamp, or
liquidating the counterrevolutionary bands in the Escambray, it was
possible to mobilize tens and dozens of battalions, we could also mobilize
a great workers' force in a final effort to carry out our promise of
eliminating illiteracy this year.
Well, then, the time came to make us of this force. This was the
force we had in reserve: the workers' class. We know that in mobilizing the
workers' class we are now giving the campaign the final contribution it
needs.
We are now in the month of August, and for some weeks the CTC-R
[Central de Trabajadores de Cuba Revolucionaria -- Revolutionary Cuban
Workers' Organization] has been moving in this direction. But this is the
culminating moment, the proper time for issuing an appeal to the workers to
join in the battle against ignorance.
The CTC-R has studied the possibility of mobilizing the workers,
because since the workers' class is confronted with another vital task
which is essential to the revolution -- that of producing, it was essential
that in launching this campaign, the workers' other obligation, that of
producing, which is so essential at this time, should be safeguarded so
that it will not suffer hindrances of any kind. Well, then, they studied
the possibility of mobilizing 30,000 workers without affecting production.
They were to be chosen from the work centers in accordance with the
circumstances, the potential of each federation, putting 30,000 workers as
brigade members into the literacy campaign, that is to say, mobilizing
those ready to go and teach in the rural sector.
The brigade members have the most difficult task, because they
have been assigned the mission of going to the most distant sites in the
rural sector. The brigade members have answered the appeal. The young
people have responded fully. The majority of these young people come from
workers' families, and their comportment has in some cases been what we
might even call heroic, because not all family homes have the same
conveniences. There are peasant families which have cows, chickens, certain
economic resources, so that the teacher has milk, neat, in a word, proper
food and lodging. But there are tens of thousands of families which do not
have these things, and naturally, the teachers have had to adapt to the
resources of each home, and they have adapted perfectly.
Moreover, they have stood firm at their posts. One never hears of
brigade members who have abandoned their posts. They have taken up their
tasks in a truly honorable fashion and are carrying it out. Now the
students have made their contribution, and now the time has come to give
them, as a reinforcement, the contribution of the workers' class as an
organized class.
But apart from the 30,000 brigade members, all of the workers in
their own labor centers must wage a struggle there, too, against
illiteracy. Fortunately, there are far fewer illiterates here than in the
rural sector, but despite everything, it has been found that in many labor
centers there are illiterates, of whom no one knew, but in the surveys
which have been undertaken and research in the trade union sections, on the
part of those in charge of the literacy campaign, it has been found that
there are a certain number of illiterates in many labor centers.
You have two tasks: that of eliminating illiteracy in each labor
center, and the task of providing 30,000 literacy teachers to eliminate
illiteracy in the rural sector!
The figures on illiterates located, those found, located and
enrolled in classes, are as follows, on the basis of the 1953 census. It
was found that in some municipalities there were more illiterates than in
1953, in other words, in some regions of Cuba, illiteracy increased.
On the basis of the figures provided by the provincial literacy
campaign officials at the meeting of the executive board of the national
commission held in the city of Pinar del Rio on 4 August 1961, the picture
was as follows. Province of Oriente, 1953 census: 439,576 illiterates,
almost half a million. Illiterates located as of this date -- 357,630;
illiterates studying -- 282,340; illiterates who had not yet begun to study
-- 128,905; illiterates who had learned to read and write -- 28,331.
Popular literacy campaign workers -- 45,442; brigade members sent out --
42,853. Total number of literacy teachers -- 88,395.
Province of Camaguey, 1953 census: 127,000 illiterates.
Illiterates located -- 102,395; illiterates studying -- 78,088; illiterates
who had not yet begun to study -- 40,540; illiterates who had learned to
read and write -- 8,335. People's literacy campaign workers -- 16,494;
brigade members sent out -- 7,706. Total literacy campaign workers --
24,200.
Province of Las Villas, 1953 census: 192,850 illiterates.
Illiterates located -- 163,871; illiterates studying -- 97,993; illiterates
who had not yet begun to study -- 86,473; illiterates who had learned to
read and write -- 8,384. People's literacy campaign workers -- 32,861;
brigade members sent out -- 11,103. Total literacy campaign workers --
43,964.
Province of Matanzas, 1953 census: 57,770 illiterates. Illiterates
located -- 36,472; illiterates studying -- 26,176; illiterates who had not
yet begun to study -- 29,748; illiterates who had learned to read and write
-- 1,846. People's literacy campaign workers -- 11,252; brigade members
sent out -- 1,721. Total literacy campaign workers -- 12,973.
Province of Havana, 1953 census: 116,269 illiterates; illiterates
located -- 83,812; illiterates studying -- 54,586; illiterates who had not
yet begun to study -- 52,712; illiterates who had learned to read and write
-- 8,971. People's literacy campaign workers -- 46,657; brigade members --
189. Total literacy campaign workers -- 45,846.
Province of Pinar del Rio, 1953 census: 99,377 illiterates;
illiterates located -- 77,775; illiterates studying -- 54,468; illiterates
who had not yet begun to study -- 38,523; illiterates who had learned to
read and write -- 6,386. People's literacy campaign workers -- 10,150;
brigade members -- 8,595. Total literacy campaign workers -- 18,745.
National total, 1953 census: 1,032,849 illiterates. Illiterates
located -- 821,955; remaining to be located -- 210,894. Illiterates who had
already learned to read and write -- 64,253; illiterates studying --
593,651; illiterates who had not begun to study -- 164,051.
This means that there are some 370,000 illiterates between those
who have not yet been located and those who have been located but had not
yet begun to study.
There are 161,956 people's literacy campaign workers and 72,167
brigade members, making a total of 234,123 literacy workers.
These figures were as of 4 August, based on information which in
turn had been collected previously. Currently, for example, we have
substantially increased the number of illiterates located, the number who
have begin to study, and also the number of teachers. For example, in the
province of Oriente, more than 90% of the illiterates have now been
located. Five municipalities have already surpassed the 1953 census
figures, that is to say, they have found still more illiterates in these
municipalities, then were shown by the 1953 figures.
Of the 127,000 shown in the census in the province of Camaguey,
113 illiterates have now been located, according to the most recent
information we have just received.
As to the mobilization of brigade members, to date 100026 have
already gone to the Varadero National Encampment. Of these, 97,413 have
already departed to teach. A thousand and some are still at the center.
Three thousand more are expected from the province of Oriente, a thousand
from Havana, and a thousand from other regions. This will make up the 104
literacy campaign brigade members.
These 97,413 brigade members have been distributed as follows:
7,807 to Pinar del Rio; 1,436 to Havana; 3,165 to Matanzas; 13,689 to Las
Villas; 10,277 to Camaguey, and 61,039 brigade members to the province of
Oriente.
Of the 100,026 literacy teachers, 52,440 are young women and
47,586 young men. In other words, the women have contributed a greater
number of literacy campaign brigade members (applause). And I see that the
women have made a great contribution to this gathering (applause). Also,
their participation in the leading cadres of the trade union sectors is
significant.
These are interesting figures. Naturally, we are aware that these
figures have not changed much for the better, because in recent weeks all
these sectors which are participating in the campaign have redoubled their
efforts, and also, everything has become better organized. We must continue
to establish illiteracy figures, with a view of obtaining an exact count
and continuing to increase the number of those who are learning.
It is possible that there are even more than this total of
1,032,849. In fact, this has been shown to be the case in some
municipalities in Oriente. Until a complete census has been taken, we will
not know the exact figure, but in any case, the total of persons of over 10
years of age who do not know how to read or write is extraordinarily high
-- more than a million.
If we take the figure on those who have already learned to read
and write -- 64,253 -- it seems small compared to this million. However,
64,253 people who have already really learned to read and write is
something positive. This means that the first fruits of the campaign are
beginning to be seen. Naturally, in the coming months we will continue to
see these results in the hundreds of thousands, because the number of
literacy workers is 234,000 -- possibly by this time it is closer to
300,000. The number of those who were studying was about 600,000. In other
words, by this time, between those who have completed their studies and
these who are still studying, the number must be about 700,000. The total
of those who remain to be located and to be provided with teachers must be
about 300,000.
We must remember that as many literacy teachers complete the
courses where they are working, they go to other places. That is to say,
that the literacy teaching force of approximately 300,000 persons goes on,
as soon as some have learned to read and write, to other illiterates. This
means that we are in a position to achieve our goal of eliminating
illiteracy this year (applause), but a supreme effort is necessary.
On 30 August, the National Congress of the Municipal Education
Councils will be held, and the National Commission and the Municipal
Councils plan to present the total figures on that date, obtained from the
complete census of the illiterates, as well as the total figures on the
number of persons who will already learn to read and write this year, the
number who are studying currently and those who still have not begun. By
that date, these figures will also be available in all the labor centers,
and the CTC-R will be in a position to mobilize the brigade members which
the workers' class will contribute to this campaign.
We still have five and a half months. No -- September, October,
November and December -- four and a half months (applause), and we must set
ourselves the goal of fulfilling our promise. The question of literacy is
not only one of extraordinary importance to the development of our country
and our revolution, but it is also a matter of honor before the people of
Cuba.
Here, for example, we have a telegram from the Municipal Education
Council in Santa Maria del Rosario: "We greet the literacy plenum with 100%
of our illiterates already located (applause), 71% studying and 451
comrades who already know how to read and write because of the socialist
equality of opportunity which is eliminating illiteracy." "San Antonio de
los Banos hails the great plenary session of the workers' class in the
province of Havana. We now have 100% of our illiterates located (applause)
and studying (applause). Two hundred and eight-five have already learned to
read and write."
The people of Bauta promise to achieve their goal, but they do not
give figures. Arroyo Apolo reports 4,555 illiterates located, 2,556
studying, and 1,999 not yet studying. They have 3,403 literacy campaign
workers available, 1,205 engaged in work, making a total of 4,608. This is
from the Literacy Commission of the ORI [Organizaciones Revolucionarias
Integradas -- Integrated Revolutionary Organizations] in Arroyo Apolo.
(Someone in the audience asked Dr. Castro if they really had 100%
located.) One hundred percent in Puerto Padre (applause)!
What the mobilization of the workers' class means can be seen here
from two communications, reflecting on organized and operative workers'
class: "To the Literacy Commission, CTC-R building. Comrades: On behalf of
the National Textile Federation, we are very happy to inform you of the
results of our work, carried out in general assemblies in our plants and
workshops, although we should mention that we have only received the
reports from 40% of our labor centers, because the literacy campaign units
will be established in the majority of them next Friday.
"Before giving you these figures, we would also like to say that
our federation is now prepared to pledge to the fatherland and the
revolution a further contribution of 1600 brigade members to help to share
the bread of education in the rural sectors, thereby implementing the
slogan our CTC has set for us, and fully supporting the words spoken by
Comrade Fidel at the UN to the effect that Cuba will also be the "territory
freed of illiteracy" of 1962.
"Here are the figures. Total workers counted -- 18,439; labor
centers -- 398. Illiterates -- 469; illiterates studying -- 208;
illiterates enrolled -- 3,134; schools sponsored -- 16 (applause)."
Here is another communication from the Metallurgical Federation:
"National literacy campaign activities. Total metallurgical workers in the
nation -- 11,374; labor centers [with] trade union sections -- 305;
literacy campaign committees -- 157; members of literacy campaign
committees -- 609; literacy units -- 24; literacy campaign unit brigade
members -- 600; illiterate workers -- 464; illiterate workers studying --
299; workers who do not want to learn to read and write -- 45; workers
desiring to learn to read and write -- 188; brigade members for teaching
wherever and whenever necessary -- 800, divided as follows; Havana -- 500,
Pinaur del Rio -- 30, Matanzas -- 40, Las Villas -- 120, Camaguey -- 60,
and Oriente -- 50 (applause)."
A similar report has been drafted or is being drafted by all the
workers' federations. With these exact figures and those contributed by the
municipal literacy campaign commissions, we can statistically guarantee the
work which is being done, and we can evaluate the progress in this work and
be certain of fulfilling the plan.
You will have seen what a great organization capacity our people
are evidencing from these figures, and what vast work this means, locating
the individuals who do not know how to read or write while simultaneously
locating the literacy teachers, distributing them and getting together all
the figures, one by one, on those who have been located and still have not
begun to study. What a great organization effort has been required to rally
a hundred thousand twenty-six young people to take these three months'
courses giving them basic instruction for their work, to provide them with
shoes, clothing, school materials and lanterns, to transport them to all
the corners of the island and to distribute them further in each locality
where they are needed, to see to their requirements and to organize such a
large number of young people!
The vast organization effort which is being made is not a simple
task, it is a hard one. It is a vast undertaking and we cannot help but
feel satisfied when we see that our people are capable of carrying out such
a task. But why? Simply because it is a task of the people, it is a task
which the great mass of the people is carrying forward. It is a massive
effort of all the people. Never could we achieve such a goal without mass
effort on the part of our people. This is a great lesson teaching us what a
revolution is, and a great lesson for the enemies of this revolution.
Why has this extraordinary mass mobilization been undertaken?
Simply because our people are in revolution, and only a people in
revolution can carry out this task. In any other country suffering under
the conditions of exploitation and oppression and political discontent,
such a plant could not be carried forward. Who mobilizes the students in
many Latin American countries? In many American countries the students are
mobilized, but they are mobilized against corruption, against exploitation,
against petit politicking, against the sell-out of their country, against
imperialism (applause), and we constantly receive news of them: student
strikes, demonstrations in front of the Yankee embassies, ceremonies
expressing solidarity with and support of the Cuban revolution (applause).
And the students have ahead of them a more urgent task, the task of
liberating their country, the task of establishing the conditions which
will make it possible to implement a project such as we are carrying out in
our country.
The task of the students in the past was to go out into the
streets, to protest, to struggle against the police, against the bludgeons,
against the rubber hoses, when they wanted to treat them a little better --
that is to say, when they did not fire on them. Their duty was to fight in
the mountains, and in practice... who could mobilize the students for
attacks such as this? A similar thing happened with the workers' class:
under the conditions of exploitation of this class, exploitation and
oppression, who could mobilize the workers for such a task? We have news of
workers' mobilizations in many countries, indeed general strikes, great
movements of protest and discontent on the part of the workers. It was
necessary for the conditions of political and economic exploitation of the
workers' class to disappear in our country in order for this class to be
mobilized like the students. And the facts are these, reflected with
irrefutable eloquence in the figures: 100,000 brigade members, more than
150,000 people's literacy teachers, for the most part workers, plus a
contribution of 30,000 workers, and an intensive campaign in all the labor
centers to eradicate illiteracy in each work center.
This can only be achieved when the conditions of economic
exploitation and political oppression have been eliminated in a given
country.
The governing class, the exploiter class, neither can nor wants to
carry out an undertaking such as this. The exploiter class wants an
illiterate people, an illiterate peasantry, illiterate workers. And this is
reflected in the figure, in the figures of a census which we did not take.
In the figures obtained in the census for 1953, we find 1,023,849
illiterates. This figure speaks for itself and explains of itself the
difference between the past and the present. The exploiter class needed
this million and some illiterates, because this was a guarantee that it
could maintain its regime of political oppression and economic
exploitation.
In the past there were protest demonstrations, demonstrations of
protest on the part of the workers, the students and the peasants. Who is
protesting today? Who is complaining today? Who is lamenting today? It is
simply the great exploiters.
Obviously, they do not organize demonstrations, because they do
not have the strength, that is to say, there are not sufficient numbers of
them to organize a demonstration. Nor do they have the moral authority to
do so, nor that needed to fight, because when the sons of the owners of the
banks and the large estates and the big apartment buildings came here to
fight, they though they would have the support of the Yankee fleet and the
Yankee air force in massacring our people (applause). Obviously, they could
not face up to the heroic struggle of the workers and the students. They
are not capable of facing up to this fierce resistance. They are not
capable of the sacrifices which lead the young people to advance with their
machine guns, and lead the workers in our country to advance against
resistance. They are not capable of the sacrifices a strike involves,
strikes which mean the suspension of all workers' income, when all they
have is this income, strikes which mean persecution and repression.
Today, when the workers' class and the young people, that is to
say, the students, are dedicating themselves to the task of creating a new
world, those who are dissatisfied, those who protest, those who conspire,
are the members of the exploiting and reactionary minority who cannot
resign themselves to this. It is those who are making every possible effort
to ensure intervention in our county, to hinder and sabotage the
revolution.
This is the change which has come about in Cuba. Now the workers'
class and the students are devoting themselves to doing what they never
would have done for the workers' class and for the students.
Today the people are the masters of their fate. They have rid
themselves of all this reactionary minority, and they have the help of the
republic in their hands. For this reason, they are devoting themselves to
this task. The figures speak for themselves: 300,000 persons who have taken
on themselves the task of teaching, who have taken on themselves the task
of leaving their homes, going to the rural sector, or at the very least,
the task of sacrificing their free time, their leisure time, when they
leave their jobs, in order to teach.
But thus, they are writing a great page in the history of our
fatherland, a great page in the history of America. Thus, they our showing
the exploited and oppressed peoples the path, and thus they are also
teaching the peoples to resolve their problems, because the success of this
campaign will stop more than one defender of imperialism short, because the
imperialists are making plans for education, plans and promises, to be
fulfilled, they say, in ten years, but, of course, they certainly will not
be fulfilled, because only a revolution is capable of mobilizing the
resources and interest necessary to carry through a campaign of this type.
But they talk of ten years, and the Cuban revolution will show that this
task can be done in one.
This will mean a triumph of incalculable proportions for the Cuban
revolution. Of course, if this victory is of interest in a moral sense, it
is because of what it can contribute to opening the eyes of the peoples and
showing them the proper path. But this will not mean merely another moral
triumph for our country. The Cuban revolution is not teaching the people to
read and write to obtain prizes of a moral sort. The Cuban revolution is
carrying out this literacy campaign because it believes, first of all, that
it is basically just to provide this opportunity to those who, for social
and economic reasons, have not had the opportunity to learn to read and
write as children. And they did not have it simply because it was not given
to them, and it was for this reason that they did not learn to read and
write. Later, this complex developed, this inferiority complex because they
had to sign with their fingerprints.
And how humiliating it was for any head of family to have to go,
in front of his children, his family, his friends, anyone, to place his
fingerprint on a paper because he did not know how to write his name! What
humiliation for any man or woman not to be able to read even a newspaper,
not to be able to go to a move, because in the movies there would be
subtitles, it was necessary to read the subtitles for the majority of the
films which were not in Spanish! And what a humiliation for any man or
woman not to have access to this treasury which mankind has been creating
with its best minds throughout the centuries, the only treasure which is
within the reach of all human beings -- the treasury of books, and these
humble men and women found themselves deprived of these great values which
the literacy and scientific and artistic production of mankind mean.
This is what it means to have one million twenty-three thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine illiterates, 1.023,849 people who have to live
in the sadness and humiliation of not knowing how to read or write, who
have had to live with this sorrow, because I do not know of anyone to whom
it is not painful not to know how to read or write, I know of no one, nor
have I heard of anyone, who is proud of not being able to read or write.
And these cases of individuals who do not want to learn to read
and write must be regarded as a consequence of the inferiority complex and
the pain, as a consequence of the sense of moral inferiority in which the
people found themselves and which was created for them, so that they even
believe that they are incapable of learning, that it is too late to do
this, or that it will be painful for them to study. But his is only a sense
of shame, a sense of uneasiness, a sense of inferiority, and we must help
them, we must persuade them that they can indeed study.
And when the entire people devotes itself to this great task, it
is hardly likely that a single individual will remain who cannot be
persuaded and made to study by this great national movement.
There were a number of cases of individuals who had difficulty
seeing, and since the beginning we have provided an eye examination free,
as well as glasses for those persons who need them.
There can be no obstacle, nor is there one, which cannot be
overcome now in order totally to achieve this goal. When this 1,023,849
persons, and any others who may be found, have learned to write and read,
consider what this will mean by way of cultural advance, political advance,
and also material progress for out people. You, the workers, must realize,
first of all, that the totality of the illiterate comes from the humble
families in our country. Illiteracy is almost non-existent in families with
substantial economic resources. Illiteracy did not exist among the rich
families -- the illiteracy of these people is of another kind (applause),
but as far as reading and writing is concerned, all of them knew how to
read and write, and their children went to school. For this reason, the
illiterates are only found among the humble families in the rural sector or
the cities, more in the rural sector than in the cities, because in the
cities there were more schools than in the countryside, and the living
conditions in the cities were better than the conditions of life in the
country. But all of the illiterates, absolutely, come from humble families.
And for this reason, when a literacy campaign like this is
undertaken, it is a campaign that benefits the most humble classes in the
country, the most humble men and women in the country. You are carrying out
a campaign to the benefit of the families of the workers and the families
of the peasants, for the children of the peasants, peasant or worker
parents, brothers and wives, in a word, all the men and women of the worker
and peasant classes. This means this is an effort for the humble and by the
humble of our fatherland.
These 1,023,849 persons are the humble people of our country. And
this is what is really the most beautiful thing about this campaign, the
benefit it gives to the most humble and most forgotten people of the
country, to the people who have no schools, or the people who could not go
to the schools because from the time they were very young they had to work
and could not be near teaching centers! This is a great injustice which the
revolution is correcting, but it is not only just and necessary to correct
this: this campaign which is being carried out is also of vital importance
to the future of the fatherland, because it is a part of the great
education program of the revolution, a part of the great tasks in
education, in all sectors, which the revolution must accomplish, must
accomplish because it is the duty and also a necessity. And a revolution
without education is inconceivable. Progress without education is
inconceivable. A splendid future for the Cuban nation without education is
inconceivable. An improvement in all the sectors of life without education
is inconceivable.
Education is essential if we want to accomplish the great goals in
the realm of science and the economic sector which the revolution has set
itself, if we want to do away with misery, if we want to become a people
capable of producing all the goods and services necessary to raise our
standard of living as much as we want. It is indispensable if we want each
family to have what each family wants to have, if we want all families and
all the members of all the families in our country to be able to satisfy
all the needs which still remain to be satisfied, needs of all kinds, as
the fruit of the effort we are making today.
It is impossible to increase the production capacity of our people
without education. It is impossible to transform ourselves into a highly
industrialized people without education. It is impossible to develop our
agrarian economy without education. It is impossible to organize the people
and the country toward higher levels without education.
We must keep this in mind, as a basic concept. It is impossible to
have a truly revolutionary people without education. It is impossible to
have a truly industrious people really carrying out their duty, without
education. Thus, education is fundamental to the revolution, and for this
reason, all of us are so concerned with education. It is for this reason
that we have made it our slogan to convert the barracks into schools. We
have made it our program to send teachers to every last corner of the
country. We have made it our goal and aim to provide as many scholarships
as are necessary to ensure that not a single young person will lack the
opportunity to complete his secondary studies, or his technical studies, or
his pre-university studies, or his university studies.
The literacy campaign is the base, and once it is completed, other
courses will follow, a whole mass educational program will follow. The